Comment
Comment features expert perspectives and thought leadership from across the UK retail industry. This section includes opinion pieces, analysis, and commentary from senior retail executives, analysts, and sector specialists on the commercial, strategic, and operational forces shaping retail. Retail Sector’s Comment coverage explores issues such as consumer behaviour shifts, technology adoption, sustainability, regulation, and leadership — providing retail professionals with authoritative insight to inform decision-making and strategic planning.
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Feb- 2020 -5 February
Tesla, Macy’s and organic food: serious change is afoot
Sometimes change is sudden and surprising, but sometimes it bubbles away under the surface for decades before making a serious impact, and in today’s roundup I have a few examples of the latter to highlight. First, there is Tesla. The firm led by billionaire space-AI Elon Musk has long been…
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4 February
How to find money in revenue leakage dashboards and improve buyer journeys
Retailers are facing a constant battle to gain and maintain loyal customers while keeping up with the relentless pace of retail and squaring off with industry giants like Amazon. Same-day delivery and one-click payments have led customers to expect more of retailers regardless of their size or the vertical they…
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3 February
What’s Nissan driving at with Brexit plans?
Now that the technical aspect of leaving the EU has happened on paper, we are into the implementation period, but the negotiations will soon get going once again. The pound fell today as in a speech which actually overlapped Michel Barnier’s opening salvo with competing coverage, Boris Johnson reiterated his…
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3 February
Why a web-based solution should be key to your returns and overstocks strategy
The rise of online shopping is thought to be a major factor in the decline of brick and mortar foot traffic. As a convenient solution for today’s busy lives, it is expected that online spending will only continue to increase with the advancement of current technologies and applications. Whether a…
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Jan- 2020 -31 January
The whole Amazon thing is getting scary now
The ‘growth of online retail’ is now so proverbial that the phrase itself is nearly redundant. Is anyone surprised to learn this morning that Amazon has absolutely rampaged through the Christmas retail season, while scores of well-known bricks-and-mortar retailers reported a torrid set of financial results for the same period?…
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31 January
Influencer marketing: What metrics should retailers focus on?
When it comes to influencer marketing in the retail sector, there is no one way to measure success. A successful campaign depends on what part of the retail marketing funnel you are in and subsequently, what the campaign’s goal is. The first, and most important, step in any influencer marketing…
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29 January
British Airways gets flighty and Starbucks smells the coffee over coronavirus
The business response to the coronavirus situation, which appears to be developing into a serious crisis, continues apace today. British Airways today announced that it was suspending all flights between the UK and Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus originally broke out. In a statement it said: “We have…
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28 January
Coronavirus dampens markets but boosts mask producers
Some years ago Bill Gates was asked in an interview what future scenario it was that kept him awake at night. To the surprise of the interviewer, he did not say climate change, or financial collapse, or nuclear war. He said he most afraid of the next major pandemic, in…
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28 January
How ‘Ostrich Shops’ are blighting the high street
The state of the high street isn’t to blame for the closure of shops and growing number of UK retailers entering into Company Voluntary Administration (CVA) schemes. It’s a trend of ‘Ostrich Shops’ which is killing high street retail. It’s all too easy to read about struggling high street shops.…
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24 January
Why retailers need to take sonic branding seriously
Retail is undergoing something of a paradigm shift. This is a sector that faces unprecedented challenges as it adapts to the ever-changing shopping habits of consumers. Last week’s ONS data revealed that UK retail sales fell in December by 0.6%, making it the fifth consecutive month in which retail sales…
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